What Are Ya At Now?*

…..or Anyt’ing Goin’ on, or What?

So what am I at? Depends on when you ask. If I started listing it could seem like I am doing a lot but if you were to poke your head in the front door, chances are you would find me playing Scrabble on my phone. By the way, phone Scrabble is the best because the phone plays it’s word instantly but you can take as long as you like with yours. The downside is that it ruins you for playing with real humans because it will let you guess at a word without penalty. That makes it a good practice tool if you learn from your mistakes. Sadly, I can’t recall from one game to the next which two letter words are real or not so no benefit to me. The other downside is that it won’t acknowledge many Newfoundland words, like, hmmmm, there goes my memory again, I can’t recall a single example even though I encountered two incidents just hours ago. Sigh. What was I talking about anyway? Oh, what I’m at…

Well, mostly buying things and making things. Sometimes the two go together. Like this example:

I bought this Lodge cast iron pan at the thrift store so had to make cornbread to justify the purchase. We needed something good to go with the cornbread so I made rouladen.

Turned out tasty but tough. More often Lance makes the stuff and I eat it. He made roast duck.

I needed something for dessert so I made one of my new favourites, baked pears with Amaretto and Amaretti. (Amaretti are little Italian almond cookies. I found them at Winners) I’ll give you the recipe at the end. (I found the recipe in an old thrift store magazine – hope I’m not infringing by passing it on)

But I was talking about buying stuff. I buy way more stuff than a person needs but it keeps me out of trouble. Like this picture which cost me all of $4.50 at a thrift store.

If you know me, you know I don’t do beige so I painted the mat and the frame and now it is hanging in by bathroom.

I bought a lifetime supply of embroidery cotton for four bucks and a book by Jimmy Buffett about a pig; priceless (I say that without having read it yet.) When I’m not buying stuff or making stuff I’m thinking about making stuff, like knots and boats and slipways. If I were to have made a New Year’s resolution it would have been to spend more time making and less time thinking. But anyway, here’s a recipe:

3 TBLSP Amaretto liqueur
1 TBLSP balsamic vinegar
4 pears halved lengthwise and cored (I used 2 and a smaller pan, and a little less water)
1/3 cup water
4 amaretti cookies
Preheat oven to 425°. Put vinegar and liqueur in 9×13 baking dish and add pears cut side down. Bake for 15 minutes then add the water (I don’t know if you can do this with a glass dish without breaking it – I used metal pan) and bake for another 10 minutes. Arrange pears on plate cut side up. Crumble half the cookies over the pears then spoon pan juices over them. Crumble remaining cookies on top and serve. If you are worried it doesn’t have enough calories, add a knob of good quality vanilla ice cream.

* “What are ya at?” is a Newfoundlander’s way of asking “What are you doing?” Not to be confused with “Where’s ya to?” which means “Where are you?”

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What I’m Reading Now

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje ♥♥♥♥
Half Broken Things by Morag Joss ♥♥♥½
Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely ♥♥
The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter ♥♥♥½
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner ♥♥♥♥♥
The Devil You Know by Wayne Johnson ♥♥♥
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent ♥♥♥♥
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes ♥♥♥♥½
A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz ♥♥♥♥
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim ♥♥♥½
No. 13 Washington Square by Leroy Scott ♥♥½
Christopher Carson by John SC Abbott♥♥♥♥
Lucien Freud, Eyes Wide Open by Phoebe Hoban ♥♥½
The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman ♥♥♥♥
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard ♥♥♥♥
Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King ♥♥♥♥
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver ♥♥♥
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (audio) ♥♥♥♥
Into the Deep Unknown - Land of the Tent Dwellers by Mike Parker♥♥♥ (great [pictures)
The Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell (audio)♥♥♥1/2
Back Fire by Catherine Coulter (audio book)♥♥♥
In the Mersey Woods published by the paper company
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (audio book)♥♥♥♥
The Kite Runner (audio book)♥♥♥♥♥
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver ♥♥♥1/2
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver ♥♥♥1/2
The Round House by Louise Erdrich ♥♥♥♥
Empire Falls by Richard Russo ♥♥♥
Dear Everbody by Anne Budgell ♥♥♥♥
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera ♥♥
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner ♥♥♥♥♥
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi ♥♥♥♥♥